Yellow Eyes?

My baby is jaundice. When we left the hospital he was a 10 and at his 1 week appt he was a 15. The doctor was not really worried because he said he was only yellow in his face and chest and that if he was a 20 we should be concerned or if his legs and feet were yellow too. So as far as I can tell, my baby is 2 weeks now, he looks OK. His eyes are really yellow and his face is a little bit. My mom is really worried b/c my brother almost died from jaundice when he was a baby. The doctor had told me it may take a week or 2 to clear so it's only been a week since our appt. Should I still be worried? He pees, poos, and feeds fine so I'm thinking he is OK. How long is normal for a babys eyes to remain yellow? How long is normal for jaundice to clear up? I'm thinking about calling the doctor tomorrow to see if we can get another billi test ran on him just for reassurance.

update: we went back and his levels were 16.5. the Dr. said at 2 weeks old he's not worried. But we can retest as much as we want. Dr. said his son was an 18 and they used sunlight/window therapy and it went down just fine. We have been doing the window religously and I think its helping, but it may just be that I look at him 24/7, LOL.

Comments (13)

This is a link to an article with a bilirubin level risk chart. It's near the very bottom of the page. Always check with your doctor, of course, if you're concerned. But a level of 15 at one week old is completely normal. While that number at one day old would call for the use of bili lights, it's a normal number for a baby who is one week old. As the baby gets older, the bili number is allowed to be higher.

All of my babies have been jaundiced. My last is the first who used a bili blanket at home. The other two stayed in the hospital longer under the big lights. I took her to the ped every morning after she came home to have her level checked. She was an 18.6, if I remember correctly, before starting the lights while still at the hospital. This was her level at 48hrs old. She gradually came down over the next few days. At five days old and a level 14 the ped said we could stop using the blanket.

If you're worried about yellow eyes, I'd give the ped a call. My little girl's eyes remained yellow for at least another week after using the lights, though.

Sorry if this response is somewhat incoherant....going on little sleep here.

My little girl was a 10.1 at 2 days old, but then 20.1 at 4 days old. She was on the BiliTX belt for 48 hours until she dropped down to 14.1 and they told us we could take it off her. When we went to her 2 wk checkup, our pedi said that the remaining yellow in her face and eyes would take a week or two to clear up completely, but in the meantime to try to give her a little time daily in a sunny window to help out.

My little guy got the blanket when he went up to a 16. He stayed on it, got up to a 19, and then went down to a 13, where we got to return it! I believe they changed the treatment levels from 20 to 15 recently. His eyes are still looking a bit yellow at 3 weeks old...

My DS corners of his eyes were a bit yellow until about 3 weeks. Like the Dr. the yellow in the eyes is the last thing to go. As long as the baby is eating, peeing, and especially pooping that's good. I say poop especially because that is where the body gets rid of billirubin, that's where poo gets its color from.

My DD is 3.5 weeks old and STILL on the billi blanket! Ugh! She was/ is coombs positive so it takes longer for her to flush out the billiruban. The eyes are the last thing to turn normal again. I would get it retested though because of your family history and because I think you will rest better if you do.